2000 Winchester City Council election

Campaign

One third of the seats were being contested, with an extra seat being up for election in St Bartholomew ward after the sitting Conservative councillor, Flick Drummond, emigrated to the US and thus failed to attend any council meetings in the required 6-month period. The Liberal Democrats had a majority of 13 seats before the election and despite defending 9 seats were expected to remain in control of the council. 3 sitting councillors, all Liberal Democrats, stood down at the election, Miranda Bulloch, Phrynette Dickens and Alan Laidlaw.

The Conservatives campaigned on a promise to reduce council tax by 5% over the next 4 years and attacked the Liberal Democrats over the closure of car parks in the city centre. However the Liberal Democrats alleged lies had been said about the car parks, and said the Conservatives would have to cut services if they were to reduce council tax.

The Conservatives also complained about the Liberal Democrat controlled council publishing a newsletter during the campaign. They claimed that it was propaganda for the Liberal Democrats and favoured sitting councillors, however the Liberal Democrats said that the Conservative leader on the council had approved the newsletter and that the Conservatives were avoiding the real issues.

Election result

The results saw the Liberal Democrats increase their control of the council, making 2 nets gains to have an overall majority of 17. They gained seats in Compton and Shawford, St Bartholomew and Wonston wards, but lost one back to the Conservatives in New Alresford. Meanwhile, one Labour candidate, Oliver de Peyer, only won 7 votes in Shedfield ward, the lowest by any major party candidate in elections for Winchester council and a repeat of his performance in Sparsholt in 1998. Overall turnout in the election was 39.97%, with the highest turnout being recorded in Droxford, Soberton & Hambledon ward at 57.68%.

|seats % = 57.9 |votes % = 39.3 |plus/minus = -5.1% |seats % = 15.8 |votes % = 42.5 |plus/minus = +3.0% |seats % = 15.8 |votes % = 6.8 |plus/minus = +2.9% |seats % = 10.5 |votes % = 11.4 |plus/minus = -0.7%

Ward results

References

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References

1. "Winchester". BBC News.
2. (2000-05-05). "Election results: local councils". The Times.
3. (2000-04-19). "Gearing up for a good, clean fight". [[Southern Daily Echo]].
4. (2000-04-14). "Propaganda under attack". [[Southern Daily Echo]].
5. "Local Elections Results - 4th May 2000". Winchester City Council.
6. (2000-05-05). "Little headway on the lond road back". [[Southern Daily Echo]].
7. "Winchester City Council District Elections - 4 May 2000". Winchester City Council.
8. (May 2020). "Local council elections – Winchester". [[Basingstoke Gazette]] }}{{Dead link.